Millennial-owned Oshkosh ad agency Candeo Creative aims to blow up

Candeo Creative an advertising agency was started 5 years ago as a problem solver for businesses by owner Zack Pawlosky. The business has grown from a few employees to 37 during that time.
Joe Sienciewicz/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

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Candeo Creative in Oshkosh started five years ago with a small team of workers and now employs almost 40 people.
Tuesday, August 15, 2017.
Joe Sienkiewicz / USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin(Photo: Joe Sienkiewicz, Joe Sienkiewicz / USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)Buy Photo

OSHKOSH - There are four clocks on a wall at Candeo Creative: New York. London. Moscow. Oshkosh.

The mix of world names gives a glimpse to the reach and ambitions of the Oshkosh-based advertising agency started more than five years ago by 19-year-old Zack Pawlosky.

“There’s a vision for us to be a global agency. It’s a massive vision, and it sounds, on paper, unattainable, but no one has been able to give me a real reason why we couldn’t do it,” said Pawlosky, Candeo’s founder, president and owner. He is now 25.

Candeo works to keep itself from being pigeonholed, taking on a wide variety of marketing and advertising work from different sectors. The company, which has 37 employees and will likely double that number through pending acquisitions, offers services ranging from development of marketing campaigns to animation and website design.

Work is divided among local, regional and national accounts. The business would like to add "global" to that mix in the future.

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Zack Pawlosky launched Candeo Creative when he was 19. Now 25, he hopes to see the business take on work around the world.
Tuesday, August 15, 2017.
Joe Sienkiewicz / USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin(Photo: Joe Sienkiewicz, Joe Sienkiewicz / USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

Pawlosky is part of a generation of Wisconsin entrepreneurs who grew up in the state — he’s from Oshkosh — and have chosen to keep their home and business here. That’s important as a number of state organizations, both public and private, work to create a landscape that is enticing to young workers and business owners.

And Wisconsin needs those workers and businesses. The state’s population is getting older and some of the young talent is leaving for happening places like Minneapolis, Chicago, Austin, Texas, and California. Efforts are underway to create an image of the state that goes beyond beer, cheese and cows, with a spotlight on areas like recreation, quality of life and job opportunities.

While thousands of college graduates leave the state each year, a 2016 report indicated about 60 percent of college graduates educated in Wisconsin are still here, and one of the hurdles the state faces isn’t as much a "brain drain" as it is a lack of attracting and keeping people from other areas.

When it comes to startup businesses, the state has battled a more conservative mindset than other parts of the country, said Kurt Bauer, CEO of the business lobbyist Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce in Madison.

“What you need for a thriving business startup community is usually research universities, and we have those ... and you need the talent, which we also have,” he said. “The problem we’ve had historically is we haven’t had the money, and that’s harder to solve.”

But efforts are being made to change.

Despite the allure of places like Madison, Milwaukee and even Chicago, he’s opted to keep the business in the Fox Valley and is bullish on what the area has to offer for both business and life.

“There is so much opportunity here,” Pawlosky said. “I like throwing the energy that I have, or can harness from others, to really build a strong community and economy in a place like Oshkosh. That ultimately affects the entire Fox Valley.”

Startups seen as a mark of success

Startups are generally viewed well by younger workers. A September 2016 report from the Economic Innovation Group indicates Millennials consider working for a startup a sign of success.

The report, based on a survey of 1,200 respondents between the ages of 18 and 34, indicated 78 percent of those who knew someone who launched his or her own business considered that person a “success.” A little more than 600 of the respondents said they knew someone who owned, or worked for, a startup.

And millennials surveyed for The Millennial Economy said money is the biggest barrier to launching a business. The report points out 66 percent of millennials have at least one source of long-term debt, including car and school payments, and 42 percent of respondents said they didn't have the money to start a business.

Wisconsin faces a low ranking in an annual report of startup activity compiled by The Kaufman Index. Among the 25 largest states by population, Wisconsin is 25th in the 2017 edition of the report. The same position it held in 2016.

The state’s rank is well known to industry and legislators in the state, with both looking for ways to foster entrepreneurial growth.

“We do have funding mechanisms to support that (business) ecosystem. It’s a little more challenging than other states but I do think we’re making progress and I don’t think it’s as dire as Kaufman has portrayed us,” Bauer said. “I’ll give a lot of credit to gener8tor… they’re one of the premier incubators in the nation based here.”

WMC has been working with Madison-based gener8tor to find ways to improve the business climate to foster more startup activity from manufacturing to tech-sector jobs.

“Startups are a long slog and you have to have investors who are patient,” Bauer said. “I think we have to have a long-term vision for this… The seed is being planted in fertile ground right now and we can anticipate a strong yield when we do harvest. I’m very optimistic, and that’s very uncharacteristic for me.”

Bauer points to the pending deal to bring tech giant Foxconn Technology Group to Wisconsin as a potential driver for new business, both those tied directly to supplying parts and services to Foxconn and those that develop due to influx of people to the state with an eye on running their own company.

“There’s global news coverage about that, ‘Why Wisconsin?’ Of all the places in the 50 states they could pick… why did they come to Wisconsin? It’s because we’ve got something going on here,” he said. “I’d argue we’re the best kept secret in the upper Midwest and Foxconn can help get that secret out.”

Foxconn has signed a memorandum of understanding to build a $10 billion plant in southeastern Wisconsin that could eventually employ as many as 13,000 workers. The Taiwanese company seeking up to $2.85 billion in cash from state taxpayers in exchange for thousands of new jobs.

The proposal has supporters and detractors. Its seen as an economic boon to the state but has also raised concerns on the company's ability to follow through with the jobs and environmental concerns.

From investor money to Foxconn, the infusion of the new jobs and ownership opportunities are key pieces of a healthy economy and workforce. They’re also a key asset to attracting and retaining young workers in the state, something Wisconsin has struggled with in recent decades.

Small town, big world

Mike Pelland, founder and CEO of high-end portable speaker manufacturer Princeton Audio in Princeton, knows the road to launching business in Wisconsin can be tricky. Much of that, he says, is finding money.

“I find it easier to find talent and I find it more difficult to find capital for a startup company in the state,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate enough, and maybe stubborn enough, to end up with some decent folks who have helped invest and get me to this point.”

Pelland has turned to crowd funding sites MicroVentures and sites Indiegogo to help fund the next phase of the business.

“The culture that’s here is very conservative,” he said. “It is painful, I’ve been doing this for three years, and it’s painful to startup a technology manufacturing company in Wisconsin.”

Pelland, 48, said part of the impetus to keeping his business in Wisconsin – small town Wisconsin – is to provide job opportunities for young people who want to stay in the state. Much of his business is internet based.

“When you start to deal with the software for e-commerce, you’re going to need those people who want to do marketing and understand IP infrastructure,” he said. “You need that younger workforce that understands people buy things on the internet and what that means… and how to talk to that audience from Princeton.”

Princeton Audio said they’ve been able to find young talent – including a Ripon College student – and wanted to stay in Princeton to foster the city’s economic base.

“Every person counts in a startup business so you learn a lot by jumping into the deep end of the pool,” Pelland said. “I think that drinking from the firehose is appealing to some of the Millennials.”

Princeton Audio has six employees and a manufacturing facility and storefront in the city. It’s working to further its brand recognition nationally and internationally.

“I wanted to bring manufacturing jobs to my small town of Princeton that took care of me for so long,” Pelland said. “It’s time for me to take care of it.”

Pawlosky launched Candeo, as what he calls an underdog, with the idea of jumping into a market with established businesses and being competitive. He started little knowledge of the ins and outs of owning a business, but with the help of others, a small team, and acquired experience, they made it work.

Five years later, Candeo has a well-furnished second-floor office in downtown Oshkosh with dozens of staffed work stations and stylized images unicorns to serve as a reminder of the uniqueness it can offer customers.

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Clocks on a wall at Candeo Creative show the time of day in other major cities.
Tuesday, August 15, 2017.
Joe Sienkiewicz / USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin(Photo: Joe Sienkiewicz, Joe Sienkiewicz / USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

And there are the four clocks on the wall.

New York. London. Moscow. Oshkosh.

“We’re in a time in this world where you can do anything… I started with no capital. I had a lot of support, a lot of help and lot of guidance,” Pawlosky said. “If you have the energy to do it, and can put the passion into it: chase that thing, it’s totally possible.”